Abortion is the Top Priority at the Ballot Box, U.S. Bishop Tells March for Life, by Lianne Laurence

‘The protection of the unborn remains the preeminent priority,’ Archbishop Joseph Naumann told Vigil Mass for Life on Thursday.

By Lianne Laurence. LifeSiteNews, Fri Jan 24, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 24, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — The American bishops and Pope Francis both affirm that the “preeminent priority” for Catholics when voting is the protection of the child in the womb, said Archbishop Joseph Naumann in his homily for Thursday’s vigil Mass for the March for Life.

His statement drew a spontaneous burst of applause from hundreds who packed in the Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on the eve of the march, which marks the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v Wade ruling legalizing abortion in the United States.

The archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas, and chairman of the USCCB’s committee on pro-life activities, Naumann said the bishops approved a document in November that provides “guidance to Catholics as they exercise their responsibility as voters.”

And while Catholics must consider “many important societal issues with great moral significance,” such as immigration reform, care for refugees and the poor, health care, religious liberty, and the “care for creation,” the bishops “affirmed that the protection of the unborn remains the preeminent priority,” Naumann said, to a burst of applause.

Watch Archbishop Naumann’s full homily:

The bishops’ document cited Pope St. John Paul II’s “landmark and prophetic” encyclical The Gospel of Life, issued 25 years ago this March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, he said. ….

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